Samo PLTW team wins annual JPL Invention Challenge

Project Lead the Way (PLTW)—the seniors-only STEM forward class—won first place competing in the annual NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Invention Challenge on Dec. 6. In the competition, teams were tasked with creating a device capable of launching 50 peanut candies into a target standing five meters away in 60 seconds. The Scallywags, captained by Noah Fraser-MacDuff (’25), created a crossbow featuring a piston and a tube capable of loading five peanut candies or gumbo candies at a time. The machine then shoots the candies out to hit the target. 

Marae Cruce / Contributor

[Left to right] Vincent Cheng (’25), Hayden Vukadinovich (’25), Noah Fra-ser-MacDuff (’25), Ellis Wheeler (’25), Ethan Cohn (’25), Steele Winterer(’25), Isaac Davies (’25) and Isabella Moneta (’25) were responsible for the winning device.

“We were kind of unorganized, but it's kind of part of the charm of the device,” Fraser-MacDuff said. 

Incorporating engineering into hands-on activities, PLTW has competed in the JPL challenge many times before, even scoring first place in the 2018 competition. Fraser-MacDuff attributed this year’s win to the team’s critical thinking skills, awareness of the timeframe and ability to stay on the simpler side.

“I think some people get so caught up and try to come up with a novel idea that they don't stop to think about an actual good idea,” Fraser-MacDuff said. “We were just kind of simple, we just thought ‘okay, what's actually going to work.’”